Elizabeth Smart Testimony: Says She Was Raped Daily (VIDEO)

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY - Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday she was raped repeatedly each day after she was abducted from her bedroom seven years ago and told she would be killed if she yelled or tried to escape.

She described Brian David Mitchell, her alleged kidnapper, as "evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God."

Smart testified in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City as part of a competency proceeding for the man charged in her 2002 kidnapping.

Mitchell has twice been found incompetent for trial in state court. Mitchell and his estranged wife were found with Smart nine months after she disappeared from her Salt Lake City home.

A judge ruled earlier this week that testimony from Smart, now 21, is relevant to the mental competency of Mitchell, who was removed from the courtroom before Smart arrived and taken to a holding cell where he could listen to the proceedings.

Smart was poised and composed while testifying for just under two hours.

She was 14 when she was abducted from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint in the middle of the night. Shortly after her abduction, Smart said Mitchell took her to a mountain camp and performed a ceremony she said was intended to marry the two.

"After that, he proceeded to rape me," Smart said.

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She said he held her captive with a cable attached to her leg that had a 10-foot reach. That line was attached to another cable strung between two trees.

Smart said Mitchell plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance.

"He said that he would kill anybody that would come into the camp, or kill me if I ever tried to escape or yell out," Smart testified.

Smart said Mitchell was motivated by sex and used religion to get what he wanted.

Mitchell's defense attorneys had sought to limit Smart's testimony to her experiences with Mitchell, without her opinions about his mental state.

The defense objected to the 39 so-called "lay witnesses" proposed by prosecutors, including Mitchell's family, friends or workers at Utah State Hospital, because they lacked the expertise to evaluate competency.

In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball rejected the argument as it relates to Smart, saying her testimony may help the court settle differences in the findings of experts who have evaluated Mitchell.

Experts have split opinions over Mitchell's competency and have relied on statements from others -- including Smart -- and past evaluations to prepare reports for the court. Kimball's ruling said Mitchell has been uncooperative with evaluators and refused to participate in diagnostic tests.

In the state court system, Mitchell was twice found incompetent to stand trial.

Smart was rescued nine months after her abduction when a motorist spotted her walking through a suburb with Mitchell and his estranged wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee.

Last year, Mitchell was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.

Once an itinerant street preacher, Mitchell is said to have wanted Smart as a polygamous wife and may have taken her to fulfill a religious prophecy he laid out in a 27-page manifesto drafted in April 2002.

* * * *

Elizabeth and her father spoke with the "Today Show."

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Comments

[Agentlady007]

( By sacrifice I do not mean let yourself get raped for Elizabeth's cause. I mean abstain from any sexual activity as long as you can until you get the point.)

[Agentlady007]

I'm sorry to say that the confessions of this case and the coinciding legal proceedings with Roman Polanski could not have clashed any worse. Breaking a child down like this is different, because it is serial abuse, and news stations that expose this information knowing the hard news stories that are presently in the public mind, barely give this girl the attention she needs becauwse she isn't famous- yet. This only makes the abduction worse in the eyes of those who were told she was held captive by a couple who preached to her. I knew there were messages of some kind of misconduct, but now we know it really happened. Thank God "Amber Alert" helped identify the predators. This kind of story makes me give up in present time for so many reasons, and/ or makes blocks barriers on my road to happiness more difficult on anything enjoyable, because for anyone to go through this at such a young age or any age, deserves people to sacrifice the same to make sure healing is part of God's work, from real people with real hearts and souls who know what being a human being represents. Elizabeth is from a family who supports her actions, UNCONDITIONALLY. This AFFIRMATION does not make me any better or a God. It makes no sense how people abuse religion with the youth of our culture with behavior that goes against the real reason for religion.

[LoveOverGold]

Isn't this a Federal crime because of the Lindbergh Law? This guy and his should go to jail for LIFE.

[ScarlettMocha]

I hope Elizabeth Smart gets the help she needs for what she has been through. Since her father was not aware of what she endured, I'm not so sure she received the appropriate help. I hope she has. The situation is very unfortunate.

[garymc8]

Simply put him in general population at Pelican Bay Maximum security prison until his trial.....­or funeral.

[Dots]

Castration seems called for here.
At the least!

[Guitarsandmore]

We have to fix this.

You can not take people that do not belong to you (not related to you) and smuggle them away.
That would be wrong.

You can not have sex with underage girls.
That would also be wrong.

You can not force yourself on women.
That would also be wrong.

You can not tie people up against their will.
That would also be wrong.

You can not give drugs and alcohol to underage kids.
That would also be wrong.

Why is this guy not already in jail for many years to come?
Why is there not a trial?

[spottery2k]

I'm not really sure about the basis on which we even care that person is competent to stand trial when it is the competence of the council that matters, particularly when all he has to do is sit there silently without testifying on his own behalf. In fact, incompetence is usually what gets people in trouble in the first place.

[1Woman4Obama]

Counsel can't competently defend a client without the client's assistance or at least acknowledgement of what is happening. Attorneys act at the request and direction of clients.

That said, I'd be surprised if this guy isn't competent enough to stand trial. The standard is really pretty low.

[spottery2k]

I understand that council often act at the request of clients, but the attorney is usually the one directing, usually in the way the couch their advise. My point is that competence (or lack thereof) is not a basis on which to determine whether or not someone can stand trial, even if it is a condition on which sentencing may be determined.

[ThatOne4Me]

He was competent enough to threaten because he didn't want to be caught. he needs to stand trial in criminal court; get convicted for life and go bye bye!

[MajorKong]

That guy is beyond creepy.

[Artos]

I think we need to deal more harshly with Rapists, I think that they get by many times because our Courts are run by men who have little real understanding and compassion for the plight of women. Having said that there have also been many mistakes made by our system, in that they have prosecuted a few men and put them in prison for Crimes of rape when in fact they weren't guilty. So, we should be absolutely sure of their guilt when we convict for these crimes, but when we are absolutely sure, then we should execute the guilty. Especially in cases like this that are so heinous. Garrido and this Mitchell should be executed.
We also need to stop allowing Religion to cloud our thinking. All too often the wrong kind of individuals are allowed to misuse religion in order to accomplish their evil acts. It is our own fault for giving those who do this a free pass as being Genuine and above suspicion. We tend to suspend our suspicions and that is why they get away with their behavior.

[swoosie1]

It is time for us to really look at sexual abuse of women and children and also how we, as a society do very little to control the predators once they have been identified, convicted, and sent out again on parole. We allow them to roam the cities freely, knowing that they look for opportunity to hurt women and children. They are predators and once a predator of women and children then always a predator of women and children. We need to take a systematic approach to the incarceration of these predators. They need to be segregated from others in prison, maybe special prisons are in order and they must be held for much longer than we do currently. If we also look at our current media and entertainment, about 70% of the drama is now focused on the murder and CSI-related activies around women and children, often with a sexual content. The Showtime TV show Dexter has some of the most pornographically, sexually deviant rape and killings that we can film and it is a hit show. Please let us realize that this type of programming does nothing but break down and desensitize the human emotions around crime. We need to look at this and how we degrade women and children and start to heal this madness. Elizabeth Smart is a blessing for us all to look at as a survivor. She is a hero. May she know that we admire and pray for her everyday.

[jessicadevyn]

Rape and child molestation is sadly very common. It happens to one in four underage girls. Most of the predators don't look as freaky as this guy. Many are respected teachers and doctors. Even though women go to college and grad school at a higher rate then men, take care of children much more than men do, many men still don't view women as people, only as "things". Rape is often treated as a joke by many police officers. And many families don't take it seriously either.

Now the war on drugs on the other hand. The police are more than happy to shoot you over that.

[1Woman4Obama]

To add to this -- most child rape and molestation is committed by a family member or family friend -- not the stranger who sneaks into a child's window. It is easy for society to see the evil in Mitchell but as a society, we don't see the evil in the preacher, coach, boy scout leader, teacher, doctor, uncle, or father who are doing these things. We may say we do and there are instances where people get very upset (the Catholic Church) but most of these crimes are swept under the rug. 40 years ago, girls were routinely told to just shut up and act like nothing ever happened..­.. that's still happening today.

[Jyoti Naik]

His wife should be in jail for being an accoplice like the Duggard case

[enh8g2]

She is technically in jail too. Her comptency has been questioned as well so she has been in an institution.

[kingcityguru]

So what? I hear he makes Oscar calibre home movies.

[Jyoti Naik]

LOL

[4TJefferson]

Please don't tell me this buy is Mormon!